Let us be Joyful

[pecunium]

One hundred eighty-five years ago a piece of music was premiered. One might say it was magical music. Certainly it was powerful music. Not just the structure of the piece... with it's incomplete themes in the first movements, finally stitched together in the fourth, with a chorale.

No, it happened to have just the right amount of schmalz. The composer took a really long (and slightly overwrought) poem and cut it down, using three verses, as they were, and doing some libretto work with another couple. The music, and the sentiments (which are, so I understand, seem a little less overdone in the German; sort of like O' Tannenbaum, which always feels a trifle trite in English: I do know the lyrics feel better to sing in German than they ever do in translation) were so effective that this piece of music; the fourth movement; all by itself, stopped a war in 1910. Perhaps, it made the war which finally broke out worse, but how many musicians, alive; or dead, can credit a work of theirs with staving off war?

That may be why it's the Anthem of the European Union.

So... for those who've not figured it out: I present the Ode To Joy (Youtube: conducted by Leonard Bernstien)


O Freunde, nicht diese Töne,
sondern lasst uns angenehmere
anstimmen, und freundenvollere.

Freude, schöner Götterfunken,
Tochter aus Elysium,
wir betreten feuertrunken,
Himmlische, dein Heiligtum!
Deine Zauber binden wieder,
was die Mode streng geteilt:
alle Menschen werden Brüder,
wo dein snafter Flügel weilt.

Wem der grosse Wurf gelungen,
eines Freundes Freund zu sein,
wer ein holdes Weib errungen,
mische seinen Jubel ein!
Ja, wer auch nur eine Seele
sein nennt auf dem Erdenrund!
Und wer's nie gekonnt, der stehle
weinend sich aus diesem Bund!

Freude trinken alle Wesen
an den Brüsten der Natur,
alle Guten, alle Bösen
folgen ihrer Rosenspur.
Küsse gab sie uns und Reben,
einen Freund, geprüft im Tod;
Wollust ward dem Wurm gegeben,
und der Cherub steht vor Gott.
(and a translation)

[for the more seriously minded, here's another: also conducted by Bernstein. The music starts about 4:25 in, if you don't want to hear him talk about it first]

Comments

[pnkrokhockeymom.livejournal.com]

I love this piece of music. I love it all the more because it is the first piece I heard Puppy play through, beautifully without error, on the cello.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I miss the cello. I don't miss the hardships of hauling it home (I didn't get a ride from school), nor the frustrations of being not quite there, but I still can't forget the sense of wonder it gave me.

I've done a lot things where I was a small part of a whole; which was greater than it's parts: the army, choirs, plays, theater ensembles, nothing, but nothing, was the same as being in the "orchestra" (We were never larger than a string ensemble).

I can't say that it was the only place I have been lifted above myself; where the sense of being enlarged was so great, but it was always the one which was most smoothly gained, and gently left.

[glinda-w.livejournal.com]

I'd somehow not seen that first version.

/me laughs hysterically

's one of the few major choral works I *didn't* get to sing while in my teens and early 20s. The Bach B minor though - I think that singing the Sanctus, in performance, was about the highest I've ever been in my life.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Was it not full of joy?

I almost gave it away, but decided not to call it A Beakerful of Joy.

[mesoterica.livejournal.com]

It completely made my day, at least :) Thanks so much for all of these links! This is one of my favorite pieces of music ever.

[youraugustine.livejournal.com]

He was such an ugly man, in many ways.

But he made such perfect, beautiful music. This symphony for me is light in aural form, and gives me the best kind of synaesthetic experience when I listen to it right.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

I've heard this done by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and there is little that can beat it.

A piece that continues to change my life every time I hear it

[(Anonymous)]

I once had the great pleasure of hearing the L.A. Philharmonic perform this piece without intermission after Leonard Nimoy's narration of Schoenberg's "A Survivor from Warsaw." I still weep when I remember the emotional impact of the contrast between the terrible horrors mankind can create and the hope to which we can aspire.

[fidelioscabinet.livejournal.com]

It's a rush, whichever version you listen to. Of course Schiller's a little over-the-top, even in German, but that's why we call them Romantics*. I thought the verses were a bit short; Here's a break-down of the parts (just words, no notes), and I think there may be some sound links on that page, as well.



*Well, it's not the only reason, but still-- restraint is not in them, or at least, not obviously so.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I like this translation a little better:

Joy, thou spark from Heav'n immortal,
Daughter of Elysium!
Drunk with fire, toward Heaven advancing
Goddess, to thy shrine we come.
Thy sweet magic brings together
What stern Custom spreds afar;
All men become brothers
Where thy happy wing-beats are.

Sadly it's only the one verse. Somewhere I have the playbook from a Chapman University Concert, and they what seemed to be a really god translation. It wasn't quite as stiff as most.

[sethg]

Wait a minute. The EU has an anthem? The EU managed to choose an anthem without representatives of twelve countries complaining that the anthem wasn't written by one of their own composers?

Are they going to start putting pictures of real people on the euro notes, too?

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

They did it back in '72, as I recall.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

It seems I recall it only semi-correctly. The intial proposal of Ode to Joy was made back then, but only finalised in 2007.

[harimad.livejournal.com]

Stopped a war? This requires more explanation. Or a link.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I can't seem to find a link.

The story goes like this, in 1910 there was a great risk of a European War. A conference was being held in Switzerland. No one was getting much of anywhere and war seemed inevitible. One of the people there managed to arrange a performance of the fourth movement, in a cathedral (IIRC), and the diplomats were so moved by the sentiments they managed to patch things up, and peace held for another four years.

[mycroftw.livejournal.com]

That one, and Carmina Burana, are two that I hope to sing, once, in my lifetime. Call me a pop-Classisist if you like; I'll just bash you over the head with my Webern CDs (speaking of which, I've heard Wozzeck - how is it possible to sing that?)

My favourite that I have sung is the Faure Requiem. The tenor to the Agnus Dei...awesome, as its original meaning. And slightly more obscure, Randall Thompson's "The Last Words of David" (http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/store/smp_inside.html?item=695586&cart=3450783737111810880&type=image&page=01&cm_re=detail-_-lookInside-_-thumbnail:inside). In the words of our organist/choir director; "I'm a little busy here. You're on your own."